PAR
Latest
Samsung introduces Advanced LED light bulbs, preps for zombie apocalypse
Samsung is going to make sure your light bulbs use as little energy as possible, last literally decades and sort of look like a heat sink to boot. The company, which just released its Advanced LED Light Bulbs for the US, has put forth the A19, the PAR and the MR16, each bulb being designed for a specific purpose. The AR19, which is engineered to replace conventional incandescent bulbs, is dimmable and can shine directionally from vanity lights, wall sconces, assorted lamps and more. The PAR, which is also dimmable, is designed with a variable beam angle between 25 and 40 degrees in mind and slated around track and recessed lighting. Finally, the MR16 Bulb is designed to be used in recessed, vanity, and track lighting and arrives in two different base types with adjustable brightness levels. Samsung has priced the bulbs from $19.98 all the way up to $59.98 with a life expectancy between 27 and 36 years; they're currently available at your local Lowe's location, although if Philips gets wind of it, that could change post-haste.
Seagate Momentus XT hybrid hard drive review
Earlier this year, Seagate promised to flip the 2.5-inch HDD industry upside-down, but it wouldn't do so by using an SSD in sheep's clothing. Rather, it'd be doling out a new breed of hard drive, one that actually has a pinch of pure, unadulterated NAND inside for picking up the pace in certain scenarios. The idea of a hybrid hard drive isn't totally new, but the Momentus XT is one of the first hybrid HDDs to actually make it out of the lab and into the hands of consumers. The most intriguing aspect of the drive is the price -- at around $130, it's just under half as pricey as Seagate's conventional 500GB Momentus 7200.4. That uptick in price isn't nothing, but it's still far less than what you'd pay for a 2.5-inch SSD with half the capacity. We've already shown you the benchmarks, so we figured we'd slap this bad boy in our main rig for a few weeks to see if we actually noticed any real-world performance increases to justify the cost. Head on past the break for our two pennies. %Gallery-99124%
Ask TUAW: Syncing photos, compressing and transferring large files, virtual printers, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about syncing photo libraries, compressing and transferring large files, creating a virtual PDF printer, increasing screen readability, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify).
